1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of applications sharing between computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Applications sharing involves the sharing of one or more applications programs between two or more computers. The one or more applications reside on a host computer, and are shared with one or more remote computers, generally identified as guests. All mouse input to a shared application is made via a shared mouse input stream and all alphanumeric input to a shared application is through a shared keyboard input stream. The shared input streams are actually part of the host system, since the shared applications reside on and are executed by the host system. The monitor of each participant involved in sharing an application displays some portion of the application's output. Each participant typically is given an opportunity to move a shared mouse cursor and make alphanumeric data entries via, for example, a mouse and keyboard, respectively, which are reflected on that participant's own display monitor as well as on the monitors' of the other applications-sharing participants.
A problem arises in the applications-sharing field when two or more participants, particularly a guest and the host, simultaneously enter data into a shared application or move the shared mouse cursor. Such actions result in unintelligible data entry, resulting from an interleaving of the simultaneous alphanumeric input from the two or more participants and confusing and chaotic movement of the shared mouse cursor, which will move haphazardly about each participant's monitor. Conventional applications-sharing systems generally prevent simultaneous shared cursor movement or data entry by two or more guests, generally through a turn-taking mechanism in the applications-sharing software which governs which participant has control to enter data or move the cursor. Nevertheless, conventional systems do not prevent the host from intruding on a guest having control by simultaneously entering keyboard input or moving the shared cursor, primarily because the input systems being shared essentially belong to the host.
A mechanism is needed, therefore, for inhibiting a host from inputting to a locally running application being shared with one or more remote guests, when one of the guests has control for entering input to the shared application. It would be advantageous to provide the guests in an applications-sharing system with controlled turns for entering input to a shared application and exclusive rights for entering the input during the turn.